Microsoft CEO Nadella warns: Don't think of AI as a human being, it's just a human tool

Tencent Technology

2024-05-23 20:53Posted on the official account of Beijing Tencent News Technology Channel

Tencent Technology News According to foreign media reports, artificial intelligence start-up OpenAI released the latest intelligent personal assistant last week, which can not only laugh and sing with different voices, but also talk to people fluently. But Microsoft, OpenAI's closest partner, offers a slightly different perspective on how people should use AI tools.

"I tend to avoid over-anthropomorphizing AI," said Satya Nadella, Microsoft's chief executive, who has reservations about using human-specific verbs and nouns to describe AI. "I prefer to see it as a powerful tool."

Nadella's comments actually reveal a profound debate that the tech world is experiencing about the positioning and role of AI. As technology continues to advance and AI behaves closer to humans, people are beginning to wonder to what extent these services should be endowed with human qualities.

Last week, a top executive at Google expressed a similar sentiment, saying that while they have the ability to develop AI tools that "show emotion," their focus remains on making sure the tools are "extremely useful and extremely helpful."

However, OpenAI has chosen a different path. They showed off a new voice assistant last week that is said to be able to understand emotions and express their feelings. During the demonstration, the voice of this artificial intelligence frequently appears in the employees who use it in the field and interacts naturally with it.

This feature has garnered a lot of attention on social media, with many comparing it to the plot in the sci-fi movie "Her", especially with one of the specific voice options that closely resembles the voice of Hollywood actress Scarlett Johansson.

To this, Johnson himself has already responded. She said in a statement that OpenAI CEO Sam Altman had approached her and asked her to voice the voice chat feature. According to her, Altman tried to convince her that her participation would help the public better adapt to the increasingly close interaction between artificial intelligence and humans.

However, Johnson ultimately chose to say no, saying that she even had to hire a lawyer to deal with OpenAI's decision to adopt a voice similar to hers. It is reported that OpenAI then removed this voice option and replaced it with another person's voice.

Before ChatGPT brought AI into the public eye, tech companies were accustomed to giving AI programs human qualities, particularly identifying with female names and features, apparently to enhance users' proximity and comfort with the technology. Even Nadella's Microsoft has not been immune to this trend. Over the years, Microsoft has launched a variety of conversational and AI programs, including Tay and Cortana, the latter named after the female AI assistant in the Halo franchise.

People have become accustomed to describing AI in terms of human beings, because people want to explain the math, numbers, and code behind software in a way that is easy for users to understand, such as when it is often said that AI "learns". This way of describing is becoming more popular as tech companies roll out increasingly powerful AI products that can have real-time conversations.

However, in a recent interview, Nadella noted that users should be aware that the capabilities exhibited by AI software are not equivalent to human intelligence. "Although we can call it intelligence, this intelligence is very different from ours," he stressed. ”

In fact, Nadella has reservations about the term "artificial intelligence" itself, which originated in the 50s of the 20th century. "I think 'AI' is an unfortunate name – I prefer to call it 'xenointelligence' because I have my own intelligence and I don't need any form of AI," he explains. ”

Nadella simply wants AI software to help him when he needs it. "I think that's the ideal human-machine relationship," he stressed. (Compiled by Golden Deer)

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